The Things He Did and Didn't Do

In today's column, Scot Lehigh diagnoses Governor Romney with a case of Potomac Fever:

Instead of conceding what everyone knows to be true -- he isn't seeking re-election because that will make it easier to run nationally in 2008 -- Romney declared that he had done most of what he set out to do. Consider this howler: "I have loved the whirlwind of accomplishment of the last three years."

Did I miss the National Weather Service bulletin redefining whirlwind as an intermittent breeze? Or has the Mittster been boasting so much out on the hustings that he has begun to believe his own stump speech?

I imagine the betrayal stings more for Lehigh, who has been writing thinly veiled pleas for the Governor to stay for months. Now he's rightly criticizing Mitt for claiming that his work here is done, and it's time to move on.

One more thing about Mitt's list of accomplishments. Since when is not doing something an accomplishment? All the GOP spokespeople I see on the television of late (Joe Malone, Charlie Manning, et al) claim that Romney's biggest accomplishment was that he didn't raise taxes. Big deal. I didn't raise taxes either -- it was easy. Nor did I raise fees or close tax loopholes to increase revenue, but of course, Romney can't say the same for himself. Anyway, If you want to start including the things he didn't do in his list of accomplishments, I think you'll have a much longer list -- he didn't fully fund UMass, he didn't send enough local aid to municipalities, he didn't bring back the death penalty, he didn't really care about being governor. The list goes on.